Does the universe have magnetic poles?

Question

The north pole of a compass needle points towards Earth's north geographic pole (Earth's south magnetic pole).

okay...

Earth's south magnetic pole is on the top/up-side in all the pictures we see of the solar system in textbooks etc. This can be explained by saying that Earth's south magnetic pole is aligned with the Sun's north pole; thus the Sun's north magnetic pole is on the top/up side of the solar system plane we see in textbooks.

Then again, is the solar system plane on the plane of the milky way galaxy? I dunno. But assuming it is, we can infer that the milky way galaxy has a north pole that is on the bottom/down side relative to how we see stuff on Earth; thus when we stand on Earth's south geographic pole and look up, we are looking in more or less the same direction as the milky way galaxy's north magnetic pole.

And so on and so forth until we're talking about the universe. Except I don't know if things like galaxy clusters etc. complicate this cycle.

Additional Details

In other words, are there universal magnetic poles? An "up" and "down" on a universal scale?

Is our view of up and down (Earth's north, and south relatively) aligned with the universal view, or do we live upside down.

Has anybody asked this question before, or is it a question that can only occur in the tremendously curious, yet tremendously ignorant mind of me?

Now, I am aware that people who live on the opposite side of the globe (somewhere around Rio de Jenairo for me, in Tokyo) see my up as their down, and my down as their up. But I'm talking about up and down on a magnetic scale. So I'm not dissing anybody who lives in the southern hemisphere.

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

No the universe doesn't have magnetic poles and it doesn't stop here. The following may amaze you as it did with me when I read about it.

The universe is not what you think. Like most people, you see it as you would see something on earth.

But Relativity says that it has no absolute point of reference, no center, no outer edge and no outside. When you observe the universe by catching its electro-magnetic energy (light) from the sky, you truly see in space and time. Because the farther away the object, the earlier in time you see it.

As a result of this, the Big Bang is not seen as a point in the sky but as a sphere around us. This is why the CMB radiation comes from all directions. This is also why all galaxies seem to move away from us as if we were at the center of the universe. The point is: anywhere in the universe you would observe it as if being at its center.

For the same kind of reason, there is no up, down, magnetic pole or anything of that sort in the universe. Everything is relative to the observer's point of reference in time and space.

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

You have helped me understand the nature of the universe better. Thank you.

Answer 2

There is no evidence of a universal magnetic dipole. There are many individual objects with magnetic fields, some of which (magnetars, e.g.) are incredibly powerful, but they are randomly oriented and add up to zero, as far as anyone knows. Even in the solar system, the magnetic poles don't align. The Sun's magnetic field collapses and reverses its polarity every 11 years, and Earth's does something similar, though on a much longer and more irregular schedule.

Answer 3

Your question is quite an intriguing one, because all the matter of the universe has an opposite, it's called anti-matter, we cannot see it but we know it's there! And I would think it has a negative charge as our matter has a positive charge. So all atoms of the universe are balanced out by one negating the other. I hope!!!!

Answer 4

The universe is referenced to a point of origin and all orientation from there is radially
It is a finite entity that can only reach a maximum size beyond which it can't exist.

Answer 5

No... it doesn't work that way

Answer 6

I think the universe has the poles, if it is a closed sphere, but all are treating this universe is not a sphere, but it is expanding. the baby picture of the universe shows that it is having the poles as like our earth, but the equator is bulged more, if the result of wamp is correct and the universe is actually sphere, then it must have the magnetic poles, but it is more stronger than the any one even the black holes.


Big bang theory said that the early universe is in big ball shape and some moment it is exploded, but if it is true then the matters like galaxies are formed and moved away, during the explode all the matter have the same force, if the force is equally distributed then all the galaxies should go away in equal rate from the centre of the big bang, but the result is not like that, the near galaxies are moving away slower than the far away galaxies.

The red shift is the one concept that explain our galaxies are moving away from us, the near galaxy is moving slower than the far away galaxy, but they have all the equal force, then they have to move in equal rate, where is the wrong?

the andromeda galaxy is collide with us, if this is true then it break the rule of the big bang theory concept, all the galaxies are moving in one direction since the explode, but we see some galaxies are merge in opposite direction, is this big bang theory is wrong?

this assumes us our universe is sphere, that it is not expanding, but the components in the universe like galaxies are just moving. i accept this big bang occur, when this blast all the galaxies are formed and they move away and tey reached the edge of the universe and changed the path and came back and started to collide with each other, so all the spiral galaxies are formed like this only.

Answer 7

Before I get into the hypothetical, let’s look at reason first. The reason for magnetic fields being generated (in the case of a object that is not magnetized) is based on composition and motion. Earth has a core made of solid iron and nickel surrounded by molten liquid, and it spins as the planet rotates (see Wikipedia, structure of the Earth.) The rotation and flow of these materials causes a pair of magnetic fields to be generated (hence the 11.3 degree offset from true North and South, see Wikipedia, Dynamo theory.)

Seeing the probable cause of the fields, and applying the model to the Sun and other solar bodies, we can generate a system to predict where magnetic fields may occur. The necessary ingredients are rotation and the presence of a ferrous metal (similar to an electro magnet.)

We know that the galaxy rotates, and can theorize that the universe does also (at least parts of it that we can see do.) The question is now one of mass. Is there enough ferrous mass to cause a field to be generated across the entire universe? It is possible, though it would be weak. Magnetics have their limits, much like gravity. The further away from the source, the weaker the connection gets. Earth's field extends thousands of kilometers out from the surface, but does not go on forever. If there is a magnetic North and South to the universe, it would not be very strong.

Alignment would be another issue to look into, something to tackle at another time.

Answer 8

>Does the universe have magnetic poles?

Almost certainly not. For one thing, because the magnetic field has no way to exist in space outside the Universe itself, and because the Universe itself is effectively a giant four-dimensional sphere, having a magnetic field across the entire Universe would probably require the existence of magnetic monopoles (objects that have only one magnetic pole). Although most prominent theories do actually allow for the existence of magnetic monopoles, no such particles have ever actually been detected with scientific instruments, and it seems that if they do exist, they would be extremely unstable and would decay into other particles in a tiny fraction of a second. So unless either one, our theories are wrong, or two, some extremely large intelligent civilization is deliberately maintaining the magnetic field using artificially produced monopoles, it seems highly unlikely that there is a Universe-spanning magnetic field.

That said, there is nothing stopping magnetic fields from existing on smaller, but nevertheless extremely vast, scales. Theoretically, you could for example turn an entire galaxy or galaxy cluster into a magnet if you wanted to. In fact, scientists believe that our galaxy does have its own magnetic field, although this field is extremely weak, over 100000 times weaker than the Earth's magnetic field (about 10^-10 teslas as compared to about 10^-4 or 10^-5 teslas for the Earth). Naturally existing fields on a larger scale would probably be far weaker still, and like I say, because of the structure of space, without magnetic monopoles the collective magnetic fields should necessarily cancel each other out on the scale of the entire Universe.

>Then again, is the solar system plane on the plane of the milky way galaxy?

I don't think it is. Although star systems may tend to match the plane of their galaxy on average, most of them are oriented more or less randomly. In many cases, objects may even orbit a star outside of the star system's own plane, for example all eight plants in our Solar System lie approximately in the same plane but Pluto's orbit is tilted I think over 20 degrees off that plane and some comets have orbits that are even more tilted.

Answer 9

The Universe appears to have it's own magnetic field but the origin of this is not known, at least according to a recent issue of "New Scientist". There was no discussion of the orientation of this field to that of the Earth or the Sun.

The magnetic field of the Earth moves relative to it's poles of rotation (geographic poles) all the time. The magnetic poles are not at the poles of rotation and if they have ever been, it was just while passing through. At some point in the distant future, at least several thousand years on, the direction of the Earth's magnetic field will be opposite to what it is now. In between, while the transition takes place, it is probable that there may be more than one magnetic north pole and more than one magnetic south pole. This is predicted on the basis of the magnetic fields found in rocks formed during earlier reversals.

I understand that the magnetic field of the Sun also changes but I know little of that. I do not know whether it is oriented in the same direction as that of the Earth, the Galaxy or the Universe as a whole.

The fact that the magnetic field of the Earth is roughly aligned to the geographic north and south at present is convenient for navigation but if a reversal had begun say 2000 years ago it might have been useless. Do not confuse the orientation of the Earth's magnetic field with absolute directions because the magnetic field moves all the time.

Placing the north at the top of maps is just a recent human habit, it seems some mapmakers centuries ago sometimes placed east at the top.

The average plane of the solar system, the "ecliptic" is not on the same plane as the Galaxy as a whole. It is not even parallel to it. It is off by about 6 degrees, as far as I can make out. Therefore there will not be an "alignment" of the Sun, Earth and other planets with the galactic centre.